Bjarne Stroustrup: How to Code Like Bjarne Stroustrup | Big Think

Bjarne Stroustrup: How to Code Like Bjarne Stroustrup
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Stroustrup shares some secrets about his work habits.
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BJARNE STROUSTRUP:

Bjarne Stroustrup is a computer programmer most famous for having designed and implemented the computer programming language C++, one of the most widely used programming languages in the world. His book "The C++ Programming Language" is the most widely read book of its kind and has been translated into at least 19 languages. In addition to his five books, Stroustrup has published hundreds of academic and popular papers. He currently holds the College of Engineering Chair in Computer Science at Texas A&M University.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: What is your work setup like?

Bjarne Stroustrup: I travel with a little laptop, the smallest real computer I can get. So the 12-and-something screen and... but a decent processor speed. And where I am, I plug it into a dock and I use two screens and such and then I network to any other resources I want. If at all possible, I would like to make that machine smaller, but... or at least lighter. Larger and lighter would be nice, but I don’t get it and too light if you’re stuck in a sardine-class seat on a plane, you still should be able to open up and write. And you can’t do that with one of those bodybuilder’s editions. So a smaller machine, convenient machine that you can carry with you and plug it into a bigger system network to more resources.

My laptop is a Windows. People always ask that. And they can’t understand why it’s not my Linux. Well, my Linux happens to sit on my desk and it talks to a traditional Unix through it. So I use both on a daily basis. It just happened that it’s easier to carry the Windows books around.

Question: Do you prefer to work at night or during the day?

Bjarne Stroustrup: Real thinking, real work goes on fairly early in the day. And then in the evening, no, not really sort of thought work, not creative work. I can polish stuff. I’m not a night bird like that. I like to think when I’m fresh.

Question: Do you listen to music while writing code?

Bjarne Stroustrup: Quite often, yes. I have a mixture of stuff on the computer; I just plug in the earphones and listen. And there’s a mixture, there’s classical, there’s a bit of rock, there’s a bit of country. It’s quite surprising what I can actually work with and what I can’t because it really does affect it. There’s music that sort of takes over and you think about the music, rather than the code. That’s no good. And then there’s music that you don’t hear... that doesn’t help either. And well, so well I found something that works, probably just for me, but I like some music.

Recorded August 12, 2010
Interviewed by Max Miller
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[samdavepollard]

Watched a bunch of interviews with this guy.
Never seen a hint of him being anything other than 100% humble.
Pretty amazing, considering his contribution.

[varunsingh]

how peaceful and calm watching this interview of this legend, we are lucky to have his videos in HD and sometime seeing him live. Not like days where it was not possible to record interviews that clear 40-60 years ago

[frappyjohn]

Warning: He says *nothing* in this video about how he codes!

[gggfx]

I love his voice. And he is such a classic style geek haha, idol

[SquareKiteGaming]

The human incarnation of computer science. 

[pseudorealityisreal]

C++->Stroupstrup = Danish
C#->Hejlsberg = Danish
Rails->Hansson = Danish

[antiHUMANDesigns]

Try coding while listening to Slipknot. It makes your code come out quite angry. You'll start noticing that your function names have some attitude.

[gabrielr.]

Did He say bodybuilder edition? hahaha

[Nostrum]

2:08 " a bit of rock..."
*listens to extreme pigscreamo death metal*

[withoutmalicexo]

Most non pretentious computer science genius when he talks about using Windows.

[AwkwardCheesecake]

Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's just sad. I'm a programming major, and I'm surprised at how many of my classmates fail at the math part of it. I've always loved math, at least algebraic math, and that gives me a big advantage programming.

[JohnWasinger]

I find that listening to EDM music like Deadmau5 to be less distracting while coding.  No lyrics to detract my focus.

[serverhunter]

actually i take that back, just the fact that he's talking about using his laptop as a dock and accessing all of the powerhouse rigs around him is pretty awesome. it would be cool to have one big machine in the house that anyone could virtually access

[ravestar]

Code fast, crash young and leave a beautiful runtime error.

[evalsoftserver]

He is A VERY ANALYTICAL PERSON
you could tell by the way he speaks and the time he Code, he seems not to depend on Intuition

[jaybartgis]

If only I could be as brilliant as Bjarne Stroustrup.

[fredericALTorres]

When I hear Bjarne Stroustrup spoke, I always want to thanks Anders Hejlsberg and Guido Van Rossum

[iamtheiconoclast]

I highly recommend Cult of Luna for writing code. Not everyone's cup of tea I'm sure, but I find it a really good balance for creativity.

[bkboggy]

One important thing he mentioned is that creative work goes on in the morning.  I've noticed that with myself.  If I force myself to get up early and start working, I accomplish a lot.  If I make it a late day, I rarely get done much.  By the way, I'm glad that I learned C++ early on, before any other language.  It allowed me to understand some important concepts when I moved onto Java and C#.  I also took a class in x86, but it's hard to learn much in that domain in one college semester.

[mobcat]

I recommend listening to music that doesn't have lyrics and maybe a little ambient. Good programming music keeps your mind off the background, is inspiring, and doesn't have lyrics that would keep your brain from hearing its own thoughts.